In this new study of Henry James, which draws on novels and short stories from throughout his career, Jeremy Tambling discusses James's importance as a theorist of the novel and argues for his importance as an American. He sees all James's work as a complex engagement with America and an attempt to find something in textual form that has been missed in the actual experience of America, in comparison with what he has imagined he has found in Europe. Tambling makes use of current critical theory, but his aim is to elucidate what it was that drove this writer to more and more difficulty in writing. This book provides the newcomer to James with a comprehensive introduction and also gives a new set of commanding arguments for re-reading and re-situating the work.